SHERRIF ARPAIO
JF-Expert Member
- Aug 25, 2010
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Often referred to as the first liberator of the Americas, Yanga was a leader of a slave rebellion in Mexico during the early period of Spanish colonial rule around 1570. Rumored to be of royal lineage from Gabon or Angola, Yanga was an enslaved worker in the sugarcane plantations of Veracruz, Mexico
By the year 1609, the large number of escaped slaves had reduced much of rural Mexico to desperation, especially in the mountains in the state of Veracruz.
Yanga and his people built a small maroon colony, or Palenquea community of runaway slaves living on mountaintops. The colony grew for more than 30 years, partially surviving by capturing caravans bringing goods to Veracruz.
In 1609, the Spanish colonial government decided to try to regain control of the territory.
Spanish authorities sent a well-armed militia to defeat Yanga but were defeated. Yangas surprise victory over the Spanish heightened the confidence of his warriors and the frustration in Mexico City.
After defeating other Spanish forces sent again the palenque, Yanga offered to make peace but with eleven conditions, the most important being recognition of the freedom of all of the palenques residents prior to 1608, acknowledgment of the settlement as a legal entity which Yanga and his descendants would govern, and the prohibition of any Spanish in the community.
Yanga, in turn, promised to serve and pay tribute to the Spanish crown. In 1618, the treaty was signed, and by 1630, the town of San Lorenzo de los Negros de Cerralvo was established.
The town name of San Lorenzo de los Negros was officially changed to Yanga, Veracruz state, Mexico in 1956. This town of more than 20,000 people remains under the name of Yanga today, and the statue to commemorate this great man was built in his honor
[TABLE="class: infobox geography vcard, width: 23"]
[TR]
[TH="colspan: 2, align: center"]Yanga[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: #CDDEFF, colspan: 2, align: center"]Municipality and town[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: mergedrow"]
[TD="colspan: 2, align: center"]
Yanga
Location in Mexico[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: mergedbottomrow"]
[TD="colspan: 2, align: center"]Coordinates:
[/TR]
[TR="class: mergedtoprow"]
[TH]Country[/TH]
[TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: mergedrow"]
[TH]State[/TH]
[TD]Veracruz[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: mergedtoprow"]
[TH="colspan: 2"]Area[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: mergedrow"]
[TH] Total[/TH]
[TD]102.82 km[SUP]2[/SUP] (39.70 sq mi)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: mergedtoprow"]
[TH="colspan: 2"]Population (2005)[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: mergedrow"]
[TH] Total[/TH]
[TD]15,547[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: mergedtoprow"]
[TH]Time zone[/TH]
[TD]Central Standard Time(UTC-6)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: mergedrow"]
[TH] Summer (DST)[/TH]
[TD]Central Daylight Time(UTC-5)[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Sources:
Jane G. Landers, Cimarrón and Citizen: African Ethnicity, Corporate Identity, and the Evolution of Free Black Towns in the Spanish Circum-Caribbean, in Jane Lander and Barry Robinson, eds., Slaves, Subjects, and Subversives: Blacks in Colonial Latin America (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006); Charles Henry Rowell, El Primer Libertador de las Americas, Callaloo 31:1 (Winter 2008); www.cwo.com/~lucumi/yanga.html.
Gaspar Yanga - Black in Latin America - YouTube
Who is Gasper Yanga? - YouTube